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Shrinking
in Hippocampus area of Brain precedes
Alzheimer’s Disease
Newswise — People who have lost brain cells
in the hippocampus area of the brain are
more likely to develop dementia, according
to a study published in the March 17, 2009,
print issue of Neurology®, the medical
journal of the American Academy of
Neurology.
The study involved 64 people with
Alzheimer’s disease, 44 people with mild
cognitive impairment, which is the stage of
memory problems that precedes Alzheimer’s
disease, and 34 people with no memory or
thinking problems.
MRI scans were performed on all of the
participants at the beginning of the study
and again an average of a year and a half
later.
During that time, 23 of the people with mild
cognitive impairment had developed
Alzheimer’s disease, along with three of the
healthy participants.
The researchers measured the volume of the
whole brain and the hippocampus area, which
is affected by Alzheimer’s disease, at the
beginning and end of the study, and
calculated the rate of shrinkage in the
brain over that time.
For the people who did not have dementia at
the beginning of the study, those with
smaller hippocampal volumes and higher rates
of shrinkage were two to four times as
likely to develop dementia as those with
larger volumes and a slower rate of atrophy.
“This finding seems to reflect that at the
stage of mild cognitive impairment,
considerable atrophy has already occurred in
the hippocampus,” said study author Wouter
Henneman, MD, of VU University Medical
Center in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
“In people who already have Alzheimer’s
disease, the loss of nerve cells is more
widespread throughout the brain.”
The American Academy of Neurology, an
association of more than 21,000 neurologists
and neuroscience professionals, is dedicated
to promoting the highest quality
patient-centered neurologic care.
A neurologist is a doctor with specialized
training in diagnosing, treating and
managing disorders of the brain and nervous
system such as multiple sclerosis, restless
legs syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease,
narcolepsy, and stroke.
For more information about the American
Academy of Neurology, visit
www.aan.com.
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